“So if someone texts me, I know,” Jake says. “And then I can text back.”

“You get a lot more texts than I do,” David says. A staggering amount, honestly.

“Still,” Jake says. “If you have your phone with you, you can text back when I text you.”

“Fine, I’ll try to keep my phone with me,” David says.

“That’s all I ask,” Jake says. “Well like, and also answering my texts.”

“I didn’t agree to that,” David says.

“Was that a joke?” Jake says, poking David’s side. “Are you making jokes, David?”

“Stop,” David says, squirming away.

“Making jokes,” Jake repeats, like he’s never heard David make a joke before.

“I can make jokes,” David says.

“Sure you can,” Jake says, and kisses David’s frown.

There isn’t enough time once they’ve finished their morning routine. Well, once David has — Jake’s just in boxers and a t-shirt when he follows David into the front hall, hair damp, a nick on his chin dotted with toilet paper. He looks sleepy and unkempt and it’s all David can do to shoulder his overnight bag, shove his feet into his sneakers.

“Come here,” Jake says, and David lets Jake reel him in. He kisses David’s cheek, his jaw, his mouth when David turns toward him, catches his lips.

“Let me know when you get in?” Jake murmurs when he pulls away, still so close it’s a breath against David’s lips.

“Okay,” David says, fighting the urge to lean back in. He’s already cutting it close to check-out as it is.

“Okay,” Jake says, and David can’t resist leaning in for one more kiss before he goes.

*

David gets back to work. Not that he hadn’t worked during the camp, he had, it’s just —

It’s different. A more suitable routine, personalised for him. His trainer from last summer wasn’t available, but the replacement Dave arranged from him might be even better: professional, not chatty, very astute. He always seems to know when David’s reached his limit, sometimes even before David himself does, but he never stops David before that limit has been reached. David works hard, and he feels like he’s accomplished something at the end of every day, is becoming a stronger, faster, better player.

David is so bored.

Not during training — during training he focuses entirely on the tasks at hand, on being the best he can be, better than he was the day before, the month before, the year before. During training his mind is clear, attention only on his body, what it can do for him, what he wants it to do for him.